31 March 1929

[By George Horsfield and probably Agnes Conway]
​G. H. 
Thirty men arrived to work – took on 25 and started to dig again and some progress was made.  The pottery is more perfect, but the ordinary Graeco Roman type-lamps and various small pots, finer fragments of red pottery and 2 pieces of glass.  Picked up various fragments of thin red painted pottery, a base and part of a rim – all on the surface and in different parts of the S. side of the site.  

Examined the graves found in Wadi Turkomaniya [sic] and made notes in last part of the morning – doubtful as to their antiquity.  In afternoon spent some time on dig – it was uninteresting. The top of the Scarp has appeared on the left hand side – so that now the rock surface is appearing across the whole width of the cut.  Pottery is scarce.
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Examined the Nabataean wall from El Habis as far as the dig, and noted it all.  There is a grave yard at the El Habis end which contains graves on the surface of the same type as those in the Turkamaniya Wadi – presumably Christian – many are orientated E & W.  

Money is running short – more is to be obtained – the problem is how? Mahmud is doubtful about riding in, as it takes a long time and an equally long time to return.  Took on a scullion (Ali) and seems to have satisfied the cook’s wants for the moment.  He has quarrelled with the Circassians and removed to the kitchen to sleep.  We now have 3 Arabs as servants, Deifullah the night watchman and general go-between – Huaymil, wood and water fetcher and the scullion.  We seem more settled down, but I am constantly worried by idiotic domestic details which require settling, but it is often difficult to make the necessary politic decision, so that the matter is arranged and no one is disgruntled.  
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Dr. Canaan continued his long walks, picking up place-names, and found two High Places on Al Qantara.  Dr. Nielsen went to El Ma’aisera No III sanctuary and was greatly impressed.

A.E.C. visited the circle on the mount with the American party, who thought the masonry either very early or Byzantine, and probably the former. After leaving Colonel Armstrong at Sextus Florentinus, she explored the N.W. wall beyond, finding Dalman’s Sanctuaries under el Hubta, which seemed to her to belong to a Hadrianic suburb.  She climbed the S. peak of El Habis in the afternoon to see Dolman’s [sic] Sanctuary I, which seemed to bear no signs of cult but was inexplicable.  (Certainly a quarry).

Reference: Horsfield, G. [and probably Conway, A] 1929 (transcribed by A. Thornton). Petra Exploration Fund Diary. "Business Papers to be Kept", Horsfield Collection Box 8, UCL Institute of Archaeology, 31 March: 17-18.